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Month: June 2011

I work with college students in Birmingham, AL. Many of them sit under David Platt’s teaching, and have read his book, Radical. I have also read it. I am so appreciative of David’s ministry in our city, so impressed by what God is up to at the church he leads down the road from my…

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I work on a church staff with ten other pastors. These guys are amazing. As I penned a note in the copy of Faith Without Illusions that our senior pastor was kind enough to purchase, I realized afresh that there has been a shift of sorts in my conception of who I was writing to….

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My good friend Brian Maiers sent me the link to “The Pornography Culture” over at a blog dedicated to the theology of David B. Hart. The essay is almost four years old, written on the occasion of another legal blow against the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). It appeared at The New Atlantis in 2004…

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Before creation ethics was a top publishing topic, before ecological theology was hip, I was a forestry major at the University of Georgia. And I wrote a senior thesis on God and Creation Care. (It was not very good.) I remember that at my paper presentation I was mildly attacked by one of the professors…

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I was graciously invited to participate as a guest in an ongoing conversation that, in my view, is of pressing urgency. This conversation centers on the topic of “ecclesial theology” and on the vocational identity of the “pastor-theologian.” Dialogue of this sort is underway in a number of circles these days, but hosting the particular…

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I am so grateful for the folks at Relevant for posting another article. This one is on the idea of “Hopeful Realism,” the namesake of this blog and the main objective outlined in my book, Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint. The challenge on writing on the topic of cynicism is that I…

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Dr. Jason Byassee is the pastor of Boone United Methodist Church in North Carolina. Joel and I do not know Jason personally, but we have found his writings very impressive. We were intrigued to hear of his plans to enter the pastorate considering his staggering credentials as an academic scholar and a scholarly writer. At…

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Joel and I are pleased to announce that we will soon be posting an interview with Dr. Jason Byassee here at Hopeful Realism. Byassee is a Research Fellow in Theology and Leadership at Duke Divinity School and has been directing their Center for Theology, Writing, and Media. Joel and I are asking him about his…

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Tonight begins the Summer UCF Bible study. Joel and I will be teaching on Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. For someone preparing to do doctoral work in the UK, with insurmountable obstacles in my way, with inevitable sacrifices that will logistically and financially overwhelm my family, with the prospect of not being able…